The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-11-08
THE GEORGIA MILITIA.
WHO THE OPPosERs OF STATE AID
TO THE MILITARY ARE.

The Recent Amendment Expanding
the Power of the Advisory Board
How the Companies are Located
Several Commands to be Disbanded
and New Ones Recognized.
The efforts to obtain from the State an
appropriation for the militia have been fu-
tile thus far, and those who have been urg-
ing the matter have always attributed their
failure to the superstition that they were OPP
posed by the upper counties, where there
are no military companies and no desire
10 do anything to aid them. The incorrect
ness of this belief was inadvertently brought
out by Representative Peter Reilly while
he was in Atlanta.
Applications for recognition were
coming in from all over the State
and numberless companies were desiring 10
be organized and equipped, and in order to
show the location and distribution OF the
troops through the State Col Reilly pre-
pared a map and indicated by circles OF
blue, yellow or red the location of infantry,
cavalry and artillery companies, with an
inner circle of black to designate colored
troops, and within the centre the number OF
THE STATES FORCES.
This map shows at glance the distribu-
ton of the troops and will be of great aid to
the Advisory Board in following out the
general purpose which is to scatter the
companies through the State, rather than
concentrate them in any one section. The
map, however, shows that 1t Is In the
lower, not the upper, counties that there IS
a scarcity of companies and that the opposl-
he, ri nf IA
as was supposed.
Draw a line straight across the State so
as to pass through Elberton and Atlanta.
and in that large section lying north OF this
line only Gainesville and Rome have mill
tary companies, the former one white COM
pany and the latter two white and one
negro company This leaves thirty odd
counties in that section without military
forces of any kind.
WHERE THE MILITARY Is.
Follow the line of the Georgia railroad
from Augusta to Camak and from there to
Macon, thence south to Perry in Houston
county and on to Albany, then due west to
Fort Gaines. and between these two lines
are the military forces of Georgia. South
and east of this last irregular line lies al
most one-half of the territory of the State,
but only in six counties of this whole sec
tion will military companies be found, and
they all lie together on the eastern border of
Scriven, Effingham, Chatham, Liberty,
Mcintosh and Glynn, leaving nearly forty
counties without companies.
SAVANNAH COMES FIRST.
Savannah comes first in the number of
companies: Infantry. eight whites and six
negroes; artillery and cavalry, one each,
whites and negroes, making eighteen in all.
Atlanta comes next with infantry, three
white and five negro companies; artillery
and cavalry, one each, white.
Augusta next: infantry, two white and
five negro companies, and one cavalry com
pany, white. Macon has six companies,
three whites: Columbus has three COM
panies, two whites; Rome has three COM
panies, two whites; Mllledgeville has four
companies, all whites; Albany has two in
fantry companies, one white, and one ar
tillery company. white; Griffin has two
companies, whites. No other towns in the
State have more than one company.
THE CAVALRY.
The only cavalry companies are in Full
ton, Richmond, Chatham, Scriven, Etfing-
ham, Liberty and Mcintosh counties Lib
erty is the only county with two white cav
airy companies; Savannah has two cavalry
companies, one of which is the only negro
cavalry company ia tire State. Atlanta,
Savannah and Alb,4J have the three artil-
lery companies, all whites. There are now
seventy infantry companies in the State,
fifty white and twenty negro companies;
nine cavalry companies, eight whites and
one negro, four artillery companies, three
white and one negro.
Some of these companies exist only on
paper, for though they have retained their
arms they have ceased to comply with the
military act, and ia y will probably be dis
banded in short while, and other COM
panies in parts of the State now unprotected
recognized in their stead.
THE LEGISLATIVE AMENDMENT.
The Legislature passed an amendment to
the military act giving the Advisory Board
authority to increase the number Of COM
panies in the State, from time to time, at
their discretion, with the approval of the
Governor. Formerly the act limited the
number to fifty white and twenty negro
companies, but the Representative from
Houston introduced bill making the num-
Der of white companies seventy-five.
IL was deemed inadvisable TO make so
great an increase, as il would leave an open
ing for companies that would not deserve
recognition, but which would share in any
appropriation that the State might make,
so the amendment giving the Advisory
Board, with the approval of the Governor,
the power to increase the number was intro
duced and passed, and now companies which
would otherwise have been kept out will be
recognized If the Advisory Board the mem
hers of which were announced in the MORN
ING NEWS day or two ago, deems their
existence in the county where they are
organized necessary or advisable.